Princess Ingrid Alexandra, daughter to Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit, will be christened on Saturday, April 17. Bishop Gunnar Staalsett will officiate in a ceremony at the palace chapel. The infant princess&#39; godparents will not be announced until just before, or on, the day of the baptism.

Protocol around the royal christening will be a source of speculation, from who will carry the little princess to what robe she will wear.

Tradition indicates that Princess Ingrid Alexandra will have only royal godparents, but her parents could break this convention and choose from friends or family on both sides.

Maud Angelica, daughter to Princess Martha Louise and Ari Behn was borne to the font by grandfather King Harald, while Crown Prince Haakon was carried by his mother, now Queen Sonja.

The christening robe is likely to be the one used by all descendants of King Olav. This garment was sewn by Princess Ingeborg, and is embroidered with the names of all the children that have worn it.

The christening will probably be a more formal, official occasion than Maud Angelica&#39;s, since Ingrid Alexandra is an heir to the throne

__________________Never let go of anyone that you could not go a day without thinking about. There just might be a very good reason why they're always on your mind. Sometimes, it's the brain that knows too well what the heart tries so hard to deny~ ~ Anonymous ~ ~

A good choice...great that also somebody of MM´s family will be godparent. But what I don´t like is, that cp Frederik and cp Felipe will be godparents...but don´t have time to come to the baptism. I mean Ingrid Alexandra will be only one time baptised in her life...and IMO it isn´t a too tall order to appear&#33;

Well the only one we know won&#39;t be coming is Crown Prince Frederik. Felipe is still in the dark... as far as I know. He might be busy, but I still haven&#39;t heard anything saying that he can&#39;t come.

I found Felipe to be a surprising choice, but an interesting one. The rest of them were fairly unsurprising... at least to me.

Since there were royal mourning in Scandinavia for Gustaf Adolf of Sweden when Haakon was baptized two of his sponsors, Margethe & Carl Gustav didn&#39;t attend. So it&#39;s not uncommon.

Originally posted by norwegianne@Apr 12th, 2004 - 11:46 am I found Felipe to be a surprising choice, but an interesting one. The rest of them were fairly unsurprising... at least to me.

Why ? Felipe and Haakon have been good friends for a long time. Haakon helped Felipe setting up the meetings with Eva in Oslo, also invited Eva to his Wedding. Eva was neither Haakon&#39;s friend nor MM&#39;s friend, she was only a friend of his ex-girlfriend.

Originally posted by donnaK@Apr 12th, 2004 - 2:22 pm Why ? Felipe and Haakon have been good friends for a long time. Haakon helped Felipe setting up the meetings with Eva in Olso, also invited Eva to his Wedding. Eva was neither Haakon&#39;s friend nor MM&#39;s friend, she was only a friend of his ex-girlfriend.

No, actually Eva and Mette-Marit were friends. I don&#39;t know how good friends they were, but Eva and Mette-Marit were friends. That&#39;s why it was "convenient" in some ways for Felipe to visit Haakon and his girlfriend/new wife whose friend Eva also used to "conveniently" be around, too.

__________________Never let go of anyone that you could not go a day without thinking about. There just might be a very good reason why they're always on your mind. Sometimes, it's the brain that knows too well what the heart tries so hard to deny~ ~ Anonymous ~ ~

Originally posted by samitude@Apr 12th, 2004 - 11:41 am I have heard that Frederik won&#39;t be attending, but I hadn&#39;t heard anything about Felipe not attending.

True...I don´t know for sure, if Felipe attends or not... but as it isn´t mentioned in the norwegian articles, I guess he doesn´t attend... I´ve looked at the homepage of the spanish court, there´s nothing mentioned...but it surely could be, that the court doesn´t announce future dates out of security-reasons (ETA)... but I hope he will attend, and I hope Letizia will be with him...to be honest I just want to see, how Letizia deals with little kids. In the current pictures (of the easter-holidays of the spanish RF) she didn´t seem particularly interested in Elena´s and Christina´s kids...but I have to admit, that also (my prefered "new" crown princess) Mary hasn´t shown her qualities as "nanny of the nation" so far...

No, actually Eva and Mette-Marit were friends. I don&#39;t know how good friends they were, but Eva and Mette-Marit were friends. That&#39;s why it was "convenient" in some ways for Felipe to visit Haakon and his girlfriend/new wife whose friend Eva also used to "conveniently" be around, too. [/quote]
I only know Eva was a good friend of Catherine who was Haakon&#39;s ex-girlfriend. I saw a few pictures of Felipe, Eva and Catherine in the Spanish press when Felipe visited Norway. They also mentioned that Haakon was doing his friend Felipe a favor by inviting Eva to the Wedding. Sure there is chance that Mette-Marit and Eva might become friends later.

I love your story of the news anchor... isn´t this the perfect question for the next interview with Geroge W. Bush...he probably wouldn´t even mind

Yes, MM (and here we go back to topic) can deal with kids in great way...not every mum plays soccer with her son...on the other hand we just know MM as mother...in her times as "party-girl" she probably wasn´t very interested in kids too. But one can change...yes, I even often forget all the troubles MM and Haakon had before and shortly after their wedding...

I honestly don&#39;t know whether or not it will be available to Non-Norwegians. Since it&#39;s NRK who will be broadcasting it, they&#39;ll probably put out a copy of it on their web-tv. They tend to do that with important events. (At least ever since they shut down the transmissions for Norwegians living in other parts of the world...)

Don&#39;t know about dress-code, but it will be at noon. And since they wanted a theme as Norwegian as possible, probably a lot of Bunads going around, both for males and females. At least those not royal will probably wear that, if they have one.

Originally posted by H.M. Margrethe@Apr 13th, 2004 - 8:36 am He don´t have the time to attending the baptism in norway becaus he are going to be marryed in May and ther are alot og plans to do and alot of meatings to attend for him and Mary.
Thats the reason

By the way his name is not Frederick But HRH CrownPrince Frederik of Denmark

Surely Frederik could spare one afternoon to attend the future Queen of Norway&#39;s baptism? As someone mentioned, Ingrid Alexandra will only be baptised once in her life. I really don&#39;t know how involved Frederik is with the wedding plans. I&#39;m sure that he and Mary make some decisions but I&#39;m sure that most of it is being handled by the royal court. And even if Frederik and Mary were doing everything themselves, what is one afternoon?